Method for accessing information and/or services of a distributed automation system

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a method for accessing information and/or services of a distributed automation system comprising a plurality of automation devices, by means of one of the automation devices. According to said method, information concerning an automation device to be serviced constitutes a selection criterion, which can be used to automatically search for information and/or services for servicing the automation device to be served.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is the US National Stage of International ApplicationNo. PCT/DE02/03499, filed Sep. 17, 2002 and claims the benefit thereof.The International Application claims the benefits of Europeanapplication No. 01123168.5 filed Sep. 27, 2001, and of Germanapplication No. 10159931.5 filed Dec. 6, 2001, all of the applicationsare incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention relates to a method for accessing information and/orservices of a distributed automation system comprising a plurality ofautomation devices, by means of one of the automation devices.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

Access is carried out here within a network of automation devices,wherein each automation device is a communication user within thenetwork and wherein a peer-to-peer connection exists at least at timesbetween two automation devices in each case. In a network which enablespeer-to-peer communication, all communication users are given a facilityfor equality of access to the network. Each communication user can offerinformation and services to other communication users and, for its part,use information and services offered by other communication users. Inaddition, the facility is also offered for searching for and pinpointingthe location of information and services on other communication usersand then accessing these functions or services.

In the Internet, portals are known. A portal offers special access toinformation and services in that it is possible to request thecommunication users and, in relation to the communication user, thememory location at which the information or service is filed, and apeer-to-peer connection can be established with said communication userby means of a simple action. The information can be fetched or theservice utilized via such a peer-to-peer connection.

From the earlier (§3(2)(2) Patent Act and §54(3) European PatentConvention) European patent application with the filing No. 001123168.5a method for dynamically accessing automation resources is known,wherein in a distributed automation system with a number of automationcomponents a first automation component, which is searching for anautomation resource, addresses an inquiry to the automation system andreceives from all accessible automation components a response to thisinquiry regarding suitable available automation resources and thenselects the particular automation component with the appropriateautomation resource and uses the automation resource.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The object of the invention is to indicate a method by means of whichinformation or services can be searched for simply and efficiently.

This object is achieved according to the invention in the features ofclaim 1. To this end, in a method for accessing information and/orservices of an automation system wherein the automation system comprisesa plurality of automation devices and the services and/or informationare accessed by means of one of the automation devices, it is providedthat information concerning an automation device to be servicedconstitutes a selection criterion which can be used to searchautomatically for information and/or services for servicing theautomation device to be serviced.

The invention proceeds from the recognition that information or serviceswhich an automation device needs are frequently already present in theautomation system, e.g. in other identical or similar automationdevices.

The advantage of the invention lies in the fact that it is no longernecessary for a service engineer who is called to the automation system,for example to service an automation device, to have to carry withhim/her all the data and software applications which may be required.Instead, he/she can search for the information or service specificallyrequired in each case and, after a successful search, access saidinformation or service.

The subclaims relate to advantageous embodiments of the invention.

If the automation system comprises a programming device as an automationdevice, and the search is carried out in stages, initially in theprogramming device and then in the automation system, i.e. in all otherautomation devices interconnected in the automation system, aparticularly favorable search strategy is pursued. It is assumed herethat a plurality of data and software applications is stored on aprogramming device which normally comprises a storage medium such as afixed disk. Thus, the probability that the required information orservices are held on the programming device is particularly high. Inaddition, the speed of the search is increased if the search is startedon the device in respect of which the greatest probability exists thatthe information is available.

If the search on the programming device and in the automation system isunsuccessful, it is extended in a further step to a company widenetwork. The company-wide network becomes—from the viewpoint of theprogramming device—to all intents and purposes an integral part of theautomation system. The advantage lies in the fact that the company-widenetwork of the company to which the service engineer belongs can beaccessed, and access thus also exists to data and applications which theservice engineer does not have direct access to, either because theyhave been forgotten or because it could not have been foreseen at thecommencement of the deployment of the service engineer that they wouldbe needed in the course of the deployment, or because the serviceengineer has, due to limited storage resources, no facility for carryingwith him/her certain data or applications on the programming device.

If the search is unsuccessful on the programming device and in theautomation system and in the company-wide network, said search is in afinal step extended to the Internet. The Internet becomes in thiscase—from the viewpoint of the programming device—to all intents andpurposes an integral part of the automation system. Today, the Internetalready provides such a wealth of information and services for retrievalthat it appears justified to conclude that virtually any requestableinformation or service is available on the Internet. Since theinformation or services which may be relevant for operating anautomation system limit the range of information or services, it can beassumed that the search will, at latest on the Internet, be successful,because via the Internet access can also be gained e.g. to competingcompanies' information or services.

In the search, the selection criterion by means of which the informationor services to be searched for are specified, is advantageously extendedto include a desired cost model in accordance with which the informationor services can be retrieved or used. If a first service provider orinformation provider—especially on the Internet—provides for a chargeper use or per time unit or if use is possible only after priornotification, the required information or service can be selecteddirectly by means of a selection criterion appropriately extended inthis regard.

Advantageously, the selection criterion can alternatively oradditionally also be extended to include information provider or serviceprovider references. It is thereby possible to search for services andinformation preferably among those providers whose services have alreadybeen used more frequently or whose service was last used. It is alsoconceivable to search in this way for services and informationpreferably among new providers or among providers already active for arelatively long period of time, for example.

Advantageously, the selection criterion can alternatively oradditionally also be extended to include minimum requirements withregard to the quality of the communication link. The result of this isthat a service or information that has been found can be usedparticularly quickly, for example because the quality of the linkcomplies with certain standards and any repetition of transfer processesto eliminate errors is thus seldom necessary or because the bandwidth ofthe link complies with certain standards and the transfer process canthus be dealt with particularly quickly.

The information and/or services are advantageously accessed by means ofa portal, in particular by means of a self-configuring portal. Theinformation or service sought is requested from the portal of thecommunication user at which it is held available. The information orservice is then transmitted from the portal to the originally requestingcommunication user or the service is executed directly at the portal.The portal is itself a communication user in the network. The portal canrun as a software application on the programming device.

Service engineers are often called to different automation systems. Whenfaults are analyzed, similar search processes are often needed on thedifferent automation systems, but, because of the differing topologiesof the automation systems, these search processes cannot be predefinedin the form of web catalogs, indexes of search engines or other accessstructures with fixed address information. In order to automate suchaccess, generic, i.e. user- and system-independent, search inquiriesbased on peer-to-peer search mechanisms are stored in the portal, whichmechanisms can, as required, be started up by the service engineer andthus dynamically generate current result lists at any time. An exampleof access by means of a predefined search inquiry is the generation of alist of the engineering tools which are needed for the individualcomponents of the respective automation system and/or available in theautomation system. Such lists can be integrated, e.g. in a treestructure of a catalog. The user can, as required, define and storeadditional search inquiries of the type described above and supplementand modify the catalog with the results returned in each case.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

An embodiment of the invention is described in detail below withreference to the drawing. Items or elements corresponding to one anotherare assigned the same reference characters in all the Figures.

In the drawing, the single FIGURE shows communication userscommunicatively linked to one another in a network.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows an automation system 1 comprising a plurality of automationdevices 2, 3, 4 which are connected to one another communicatively viaan automation system bus 5, e.g. a field bus 5. One of the automationdevices 3 is a programming device 3 which is temporarily connected tothe automation system bus 5 for servicing an automation device 4 to beserviced.

A communications link 6 exists between the automation system 1 and acompany-wide network 9. Via this link 6, access to information and/orservices which are held available by one of the communication users 7 ofthe company-wide network 9 is possible for automation devices 2, 3 and4. The company-wide network is in this case e.g. the network 9 of thecompany which is entrusted with servicing the automation system 1. Thecompany-wide network 9 can, for example, also be the network 9 of thecompany which manufactures or distributes the automation devices 2, 3,4, in particular the automation device 4 to be serviced.

Finally, the connection 6 also provides a connection to the Internet 8.On the Internet 8, it is possible to access further information andservice resources.

In the case of the servicing of the automation device 4 to be serviced,a special automation device 3 by means of which servicing jobs can becarried out, e.g. a programming device 3, is connected to the automationsystem bus 5. Via the bus 5 a connection, in particular a peer-to-peerconnection, can be established between the programming device 3 and theautomation device 4 to be serviced. Via this connection, statusinformation is obtained from the automation device 4 to be serviced.This status information may be e.g. a fault report or a requestregarding certain information, e.g. regarding a foreign-language versionof an operating handbook. The fault report is in this case eitherdirectly analyzable or implicit, e.g. contained in the totality ofstates of the automation device if, based on the states, a specificfault condition can automatically be concluded. The status informationconstitutes a selection criterion which can be used to searchautomatically, initially on the programming device 3, for informationand/or services for servicing the automation device 4 to be serviced.

If the information or service sought is available on the programmingdevice 3, the requested information is transmitted to the automationdevice 4 and/or the service requested is executed either on theprogramming device or, after the requested service has been transmittedto the automation device 3, on the automation device.

If the information or service sought is not available on the programmingdevice 3, the search is extended, where a connection 6 exists to acompany-wide network 9, to the network 9. If the information or servicesare found on one of the communication users 7 of the company-widenetwork 9, they are—as if they had been found on the programming device3—transmitted or executed.

If the information or services sought are also not available in thecompany-wide network 9, the search is, where a connection 6 to theInternet 8 exists, finally continued on the Internet 8.

The invention can thus be briefly described as follows:

A method is indicated for accessing information and/or services of adistributed automation system 1 comprising a plurality of automationdevices 2, 3, 4, by means of one of the automation devices 3, whereininformation concerning an automation device 4 to be serviced constitutesa selection criterion which can be used to search automatically forinformation and/or services for servicing the automation device 4 to beserviced.

1. A method for accessing information and/or services of an automationsystem comprising: providing a plurality of automation devices on afield bus; connecting a servicing device to the field bus; establishinga communication on the field bus between the servicing device and one ofthe automation devices; retrieving status information from said one ofthe automation devices into the servicing device via the communication;preparing a selection criterion in the servicing device from theretrieved status information: and automatically searching by means ofthe servicing device for information and/or services for servicing saidone of the automation devices, using the selection criterion, bysearching first in the servicing device, and if not found in theservicing device, searching next among the automation devices on thefield bus, and if not found among the automation devices on the fieldbus, searching next among communications users in a given companynetwork external to the field bus, and if not found in the companynetwork, searching the Internet.
 2. The method according to claim 1,wherein the selection criterion comprises a cost model in accordancewith which the information or services can be retrieved or used.
 3. Themethod according to claim 1, wherein the selection criterion includesinformation provider or service provider references.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein the selection criterion comprises minimumrequirements with regard to the quality of the communication link. 5.The method according to claim 1, wherein access to the informationand/or services is provided by a portal.
 6. The method according toclaim 5, wherein the portal is a self-configuring portal.
 7. A methodfor accessing information/or services of an automation systemcomprising: providing a plurality of automation devices interconnectedby a field bus; connecting a servicing device to the field bus, theservicing device comprising a data storage medium; retrieving statusinformation from a given one of the automation devices over the fieldbus into the servicing device; determining a fault or a servicerequirement of said one of the automation devices from the retrievedstatus information; preparing a search criterion in the servicing devicefrom the retrieved status information and the fault or the servicerequirement; automatically conducting by means of the servicing device,using the search criterion, a first search on the storage device for asoftware application to resolve the fault or the service requirement; ifthe first search is unsuccessful, next automatically conducting by meansof the servicing device a second search via the field bus for thesoftware application among the plurality of automation devices; if thesecond search is unsuccessful, next automatically conducting by means ofthe servicing device a third search via a communications link for thesoftware application among communication users of a given company on anetwork external to the automation system; and if the third search isunsuccessful, next automatically conducting by means of the servicingdevice a fourth search via the Internet for the software application,the fourth search comprising results prioritized by previously acceptedInternet sites, cost, and connection speed.